Gemma tagged me last week (or was it longer than that, sorry Gemma, I’ve lost track of time) for this fun meme.

Rules:
The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
Each player answers the questions about himself or herself.
At the end of the post, the player then tags five people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here we go……

What were you doing ten years ago today?

Ah, that would be May 1998. I remember it distinctly. My son was almost two and we were talking about trying for another child. But I was admitted to hospital with severe bleeding and had to have what they call an endometrial ablation. The doctors wanted to perform a full hysterectomy but I was terrified of the side-effects and of dying on the operating table(one of my greatest fears/phobias) so I refused. I was told at that point that I would never be able to have any more children which devastated me at the time because I had been dreaming of having a little golden-haired daughter. Real dreams, almost every night. It took me a few years to come to terms with it because the dream had been so vivid. Then a really odd thing happened. My sister, Shelley had a baby girl who looked just like the little girl in my dream. I don’t know why, but I was finally able to put my disappointment at not bringing another child into the world to rest. That little girl in my dream had come into this world another way. When I met my niece for the first time she looked at me as if to say: ‘I know you.’ It was uncanny.

5 things on today’s ‘to do’ list –

Finish the next chapter of my book about the homeless girl

Get through a day of work without plotting to make a pair of cement shoes for my boss

Visit all the blogs I love to read

Make chocolate banana bread as a little end of the week treat

Spend the evening watching the DVD of Atonement I got for my birthday. Can it possibly be as good as the book? I mean, in my eyes Ian McEwan is a god!

5 Things I’d Do If I Was A Billionaire –

Buy a house

Leave a little aside for a rainy day

Set up my own publishing/film production company and give deals to all the great writers I know who are constantly rejected by the mainstream publishers

Give at least ten million to all my favourite charities

Distribute the rest of the money among my family and friends. No point in keeping it all to yourself, is there? So I probably wouldn’t be a billionaire for long. Then I’d get a T-shirt made that said : ‘I used to be a billionaire but now I’m happy.’

5 bad habits –

what, only five?

Leaving books all over the place (I read a few things at once)

Not always being able to say NO straight away even if I really want to

Letting depression de-motivate me

Fearing success (I think that’s why I have so many unfinished writing projects. I don’t fear rejection, I fear success. Sounds odd, I know, but I am used to being rejected. Success would mean looking differently at the way I view myself)

Jumping to conclusions and overreacting

5 places I’ve lived –

Glasgow, Scotland

Donegal, Ireland

Italy (for a year as a backpacker)

Sydney, Australia

In my head on Introspection Street (yeah, I used to be a Goth)

5 jobs I’ve had –

Teacher

Editor

Waitress

Gardener

Fiction buyer in a bookshop

So, that’s it. Thanks, Gemma, that was fun.

I’m not going to tag anyone but if you feel so inclined, please feel free to indulge.

Please spare a thought or a prayer over the next few days and weeks for the people of Parkersburg, Iowa, who have been badly affected by a tornado. Dear blogging friends of mine – Britt and her Mum – are in the midst of the devastation right now.

I am so sorry, dear ones. What an awful thing to go through. I am thinking of you and praying for you every day.

The dream you had about the little girl was very eerie. I used to have a dream before I had children about a little girl with dark curly hair and huge eyes. She was about two years old when I gave birth to her. OUCH. When I had my daughters I immediately recognised one of them even though she was a newborn and not a toddler and yes she looked exactly like the child in my dream when she got older.

I know I’ve said it again and again but you are a LOVELY person Selma! Your billionaire list reads like mine does. I loved your tee-shirt idea too. Promise, if I win first, I’ll share with you, as one of my dear (albeit new) friends.

You were a backpacker in Italy? Cool! Long time ago, I gave a Danish girl a hitch from Seattle to Los Angeles. She was backpacking her way around the States. It fascinated me back then as I didn’t quite understand why someone didn’t stay in one place and get a job. HA!!!

PAISLEY – it’s no inconvenience at all. I don’t want to miss out on reading one of my favourite poets. Sorry about your tech difficulties.

COWGAL -steal away. That’s what memes are for!

GYPSY – No! that is uncanny. We both dreamed of children who hadn’t yet been born. My Mum always says that before babies are born they are little angels up in heaven. Maybe there’s some truth in it after all. Maybe the little angels appear to us in our dreams. I know one thing for sure, there is a whole lot more to this world than we presently understand. What an amazing story!

MELEAH – you HAVE to go to Italy. You MUST. Actually, I think your parents are right. You will fall in love with it and never want to return. I travelled there over 20 years ago and it is still my favourite place in the world. I’d go back there in a heartbeat.

GERALDINE – awww, you know I regard you as a dear friend too. I feel like I’ve known you for ages. It’s wonderful. Think of the changes we could make with a billion dollars at our disposal. If only…..

CHRIS – backpacking was just about the most fun I’ve ever had. I got lots of jobs along the way like waitressing, nannying, gardening. Once I even had to look after this guy’s sheep and one of them escaped and I spent a whole hour chasing it. You wouldn’t think so but sheep can be quite quick-footed. Little blighter!

Thanks for sharing a slice of your past life, Selma. Very entertaining. If you don’t mind, I’ll leave my well wishes for Britt , her family and friends here as I’m having difficulty leaving a comment over on her blog.

Oh, how my heart goes out to the folks in Iowa. I grew up in a small town in the tornado belt and remember well the drills in school and crouching under my father’s workbench in the basement with the fire siren blaring its tornado warning pattern. Those storms can be so devastatingly sudden and precise. I’ve seen 100 foot paths of towns obliterated by a tornado while 50 feet away, the trees may have lost a few leaves. I’m sending prayers for the whole town.

I think your mom was right on the money about children being angels before birth. I believe we’ve all agreed to come together in this life to learn from each other. That our objective is for all souls to grow in compassion and come to grasp the interconnectedness of all things. To ultimately understand the cosmic oneness everything arises from, and so our essential sameness. If you haven’t read Mitch Albom’s “The Five People You Meet in Heaven” I think you would like it. It is a compelling and beautiful read that addresses the tremendous impacts we have on each others lives, most often without ever realizing it.

DAVID – that is lovely of you to be concerned for Britt and her family. I know she’ll appreciate it.

KAYT – how terrifying that must have been for you. I just can’t imagine it. The second half of your comment is just about the most beautiful way I have ever heard the purpose of life described. I am definitely going to have to read that book. You always give me a lot to think about.

I think I was in Egypt, cruising Lake Nasser on the ‘Eugenie’ … I’m pretty sure it was May, but unfortunately, the entry stamp in my passport is in Arabic. And, my ‘trip diary’ only goes back to 2002. I did keep one before that, but, unfortunately, it was in my briefcase, which was stolen from my car that year.